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Often, I consider all the experiences and all the people who have lifted me ‘Higher and Higher’. The most important thing I need to remember is that whatever I managed to do for the good and betterment of mankind, could never have been done alone. All I am, all I ever was or will ever be has been advanced from the shoulders of those above me, along with the sweat of the brows of those who have walked alongside me.
I remember way back in 1989, I decided to do three things: (1) start writing books for children about subjects and themes that they find most difficult to cope with such as bereavement, separation, loss, bullying, jealousy, and any manner of discrimination. I wanted to push these messages forward in primary schools in Yorkshire by holding school assemblies. (2) To raise awareness within all communities of the subjects and themes that my books addressed. (3) To sell my books predominantly to schools and allow all the sales profits to go to charitable causes. We raised over £200,000 (two-hundred thousand pounds) between 1989 and 2003, and all the sales profit of my 67 published books today goes to providing free children’s books to schools, churches and individuals; a practice to be carried on in perpetuity.
I was ‘the face’ of in these charitable ventures, the man up front, the organiser whom the press and radio and tv media gave the credit to. But note, none of this would have been possible without the help of a thousand helpers in the background, behind the scenes of the publicity the project received. Even my M.B.E that I was awarded in 1995 for ‘Services to the West Yorkshire Community’, and which Queen Elizabeth pinned on me at the Buckingham Palace in 1995 should have been divided a thousand times and given to everyone who’d helped in the success of my charitable work. Also, I was not only wanting to write books, from which school children, communities and charitable causes could benefit, I wanted my books to be of the highest quality and have better quality paper, and with the best creative art on its cover, and good-sized print that could be easily read. I then wanted the books to sell at half the price they might command in retail shops yet place them within the purse range of the poorest parents. I also wanted famous people to visit Yorkshire schools to read my books to the children in special assemblies, for free.
The only way I could achieve this (over 800 national and international stars and famous people visited schools between 1980-1990), was, if they would agree to travel hundreds of miles to West Yorkshire schools and libraries for no payment at all. With regard to the books printed and sold to schools, two separate printers over a decade did all their work at ‘nil profit’ and I had a stable of West Yorkshire’s finest artists (most not established at the start of their careers but all who earn large amounts for their paintings today), to do their work for no payment other than the cost for their materials.
The schools eventually helped by placing advanced orders for between 3,000 and 5,000 books one year before the next book was published (sometimes before it was even written). As my books became more popular and was regularly reported on by the media, as well as being publicly supported and endorsed by people like the late Princess Diana and Nelson Mandela, I was able to turn the traditional retail market upside down by creating a demand that couldn’t be met. I was, in effect, writing books that the public couldn’t buy. Only the 200 regular schools and libraries that received an annual visit over the decade were able to purchase my books through their pupils.
When one makes a product totally exclusive to ‘schools only’ and the 5,000 limited publication is sold out in advance of it being written and published, it is easier for the purchase of the next book to be more eagerly sought by those who cannot buy it! Tell anyone that they cannot have this or that and they want it more!
Whether it be the adult figures in my life, my teachers, my educators, my employers, my lovers, my friends, my family, my wife and my God; each and all have lifted me higher and higher when trial and tribulation have entered my life. I have, on occasions, been spurred into positive action by the expressed thought, the thoughtful action, the smile, the kind word, the appropriate touch, the warm embrace and the friendly advice of another; without which I may have stood still and rested on my laurels, thinking I’d done enough.
So, thousands of people lifted me higher and higher during my earlier years, to whom I remain eternally grateful. Since I married my wife Sheila on my 70th birthday, she has never allowed me to lower my spirits and despite having three cancers in my body at the moment for which I am awaiting another operation and am receiving treatment for, believe me when I say that I have never been happier with my life.
I do not think it would have been possible for me to have continued my journey through life over the past seven years since I developed a terminal blood cancer without my own personal belief in self, in the power of prayer and in the mercy of my God. I know that I am and can never be more than a grain of sand in this vast human desert, where the survival of all depends upon each of us being willing to share all that is important to live in comfort and peace. I know that while I can continue to positively relate to strangers, respect self, serve others and revere my God, I shall never be blown away from the body and soul I inhabit within the human desert.
Love and peace Bill xxx